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I don't really disagree with any of this, but attendance and TV ratings isn't what makes something a pasttime. At least, I hope it's not, maybe it's fitting now given how much time we spend watching TV.

I'm not really sure there is an American pastime, singular, anymore. Plenty of kids are still playing little league, but plenty of kids are also playing pop warner and house soccer and peewee hockey and gym basketball. But even then, those aren't really pastimes, which should be less structured. Any way you slice it though, there is no hegemonic pastime anymore.

If we have a pastime, it's not a singular one, and it's not a national one. It's by culture/race and geography and it's street basketball, count-blitz football and pick-up soccer.

When I was a kid I played street hockey with my neighborhood friends and football with my school friends. I always tried to get sandlot baseball games going, even though I wasn't a baseball fan 'til I was 16, but could never marshal enough players for an actual game. The best we could do was hotbox or batting practice, the latter of which always fizzled because no one could pitch well enough to keep it interesting. Sandlot baseball is hard (equipment, skill, playing space, required players) in a way that none of the others are, so without ubiquity it's hard to maintain.

Sandlot baseball is hard (equipment, skill, playing space, required players) in a way that none of the others are, so without ubiquity it's hard to maintain.

Growing up in the suburbs of Detroit in the 70s, it seemed me and my friends (and older brothers) played baseball all summer long, all day, every day. There were always plenty of players; hell, usually there were too many, and we'd wind with with seven guys in the outfield or something. (You'd think this would hamper offenses, but no.) We'd play football in the fall, and occasionally street hockey in winter (nobody played basketball, possibly because we were an all-white group), but mostly it was baseball, baseball, baseball, all summer long. Why would anyone ever want to do anything else?

Now...I don't think I've seen a genuine baseball pickup game in decades. I live in a small town, but there's plenty of kids and plenty of playgrounds, including ball fields. Kids shoot hoops, they skateboard, they kick a soccer ball around. No baseball, ever.

Hell, if this isn't proof that my generation represented the apex of civilization, and that today's kids are a complete waste of flesh, then nothing is!

why does the NFL still have that silly TV blackout rule? It’s simple. Without it, the NFL would be embarrassed to have mostly half-empty stadiums

I honestly didn't know that the NFL still had a blackout rule. Ever since I moved to Dallas (25 years ago) I can't remember it ever being mentioned around here, as the Cowboys always sell out, and everyone assumes they'll be on TV, too. Are there other NFL teams whose attendance is being kept on life support by the blackout rule? I have to think the interest both exceeds the available seats and provides excellent ratings nearly everywhere. Even the Chiefs sold 89% of their seats last year (Miami was lowest in the NFL, at 76%, so maybe some games were indeed blacked out there).

The Cowboys sold 111% of their capacity last year, though that's something of a cooked number. They sell standing-room places on various levels in the end zone, which must be figured as the 11% over capacity, even though the stadium is designed to include all that standing room.

Are there other NFL teams whose attendance is being kept on life support by the blackout rule

The Rams over the past couple of years have had blacked out games, have had to get special permission from the NFL to extend the deadline, and have had the owners buy out all the remaining tickets at least one time.